Perhaps that surreal intention is reasonable. More so than anything Severed or either Guacamelee titles dished out. And for all the right reasons Nobody‘s own semi-abstract art-style and character design does admittedly feel like it leans more toward the surreal, which is hard to ignore and one you will either love or loathe.
If anything, Drinkbox’s signatory art-style - use of colour on top - ends up playing second-fiddle. The kind that implements roguelite elements, level-caps and a player’s own incessant desire to see the numbers go up in a desperate attempt to feel validated for time spent. How new the end result may feel with the studio’s latest, Nobody Saves the World, comes down to what you yourself take out of this specific crop of action RPG outings. Herein lies two separate IPs where Drinkbox have proven capable enough on revisiting old ideas through new perspective. Tack on the realization of it being built around touch-based controls - the surprise-within-a-surprise of many an elevator pitch - and you had a welcome little bundle of mechanics that could match the attraction of its visuals. A game that took something as arcane and redundant (outside of nostalgia value) as first-person dungeon-crawling and created something rather wonderful, Severed was no less than affirmative that Drinkbox had the tools and the know-how to freshen up a worn sub-genre. While the team’s own interpretation of the Metroidvania craze via both Guacamelee titles - released prior to and during the genre’s modern-day boom - is likely the more recognisable name to many, 2016’s Severed was the more viable proof that Drinkbox were more than a team of avid colour enthusiasts.
It’s that eccentricity and somewhat unordinary approach that has helped Drinkbox establish itself in a little under a decade of activity. Liberal use of colour is nothing new to this space, nor is the idea that studios aren’t afraid to get weird with the visuals and the premise on show. One moment you’re moving through a splendour of greens and blues, the next Drinkbox have yanked the dial so far in the opposite direction that the more purple/magenta/rose regions are filling one’s screen. An excess of colour, some might say - semi-abstract shapes and figures bursting with a vibrancy that stretches right across the spectrum and back again. If anything is true of a game developed by Drinkbox, it’s that the Toronto-based outfit aren’t afraid of a little colour.
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